MOTOGP - LE MANS - PREVIEW

SECOND EUROPEAN RACE FOR MOTOGP

APRILIA HEADS TO LE MANS WITH ALVARO BAUTISTA AND STEFAN BRADL DETERMINED TO RIDE THEIR RS-GP MACHINES INTO THE POINTS

The second European round of the 2016 MotoGP World Championship will be held this weekend on the French "Bugatti" track at Le Mans. This is an historic international motoring theatre, part of the famous Circuit de la Sarthe that hosts the renowned "24 Hour" endurance competition.

Relatively short with a lot of heavy braking sections and direction changes, the French track with these characteristics could prove to be "friendly" for the Aprilia RS-GP bikes, a new project with developments that continued even this week with a series of private tests at Mugello and that has already demonstrated promising values in terms of reliability and performance.

The unknown at Le Mans that must always be taken into consideration is the weather, which can change suddenly and heavily influence the practice sessions and races. This is another important element that will demand maximum concentration from the entire Aprilia Racing Team Gresini.

ROMANO ALBESIANO - APRILIA RACING MANAGER“Our development programme continues. On Monday at Mugello we completed a few important electronics tests with Bautista and Bradl in terms of power output, whereas on Tuesday and Wednesday the tests continued with Mike di Meglio and the Aprilia test team. At Le Mans there will once again be aerodynamic changes, engine performance improvements and some further fine-tuning on the electronics package that we will be trying out on the French track. We are coming from a race at Jerez where the RS-GP showed some important signs of competitiveness and we aim to continue the positive trend”.

FAUSTO GRESINI - TEAM MANAGER“In the private tests and Mugello we tried out the technical updates on the track that had already been introduced in the post-race tests at Jerez, but unfortunately the weather conditions weren't the best. So at Le Mans we'll continue testing the chassis upgrades that already gave us positive indications in Spain with improvements in terms of stability and the way the bike performs coming out of corners. We will definitely be able to take another important step forward, continuing development leading up to the Italian Grand Prix at Mugello, which is a very important found for us”.

ALVARO BAUTISTA“Le Mans is a relatively small track with a lot of direction changes and really unpredictable weather. We'll have one eye on the sky in every session! After the good weekend at Jerez, despite my crash in the race, we hope to continue improving my feeling in the saddle and the bike's performance. In the tests after the race we put in a lot of kilometres, continuing our development programme with upgrades that we will continue to focus on in France as well. I would like to battle like I did last round, going through to Q2 in the qualifiers and battling in the top 10 zone during the race”.

STEFAN BRADL“I'm very anxious to get to the second European round at Le Mans. We'll have some upgrades and this is a track that I think can really cater well to the characteristics of our bike. In terms of layout it isn't a very fast track, but there are a lot of heavy braking sections where the RS-GP has proven to perform rather well. We'll arrive at the French round ready for action. We are working well and I'm sure that we'll bring home important championship points here as well for me and for Aprilia”.